Details
by Euphoric Dysphoria
Summary: PERSONA 3 - Riisa Nakamura is the new member of S.E.E.S. During her adaption to the "new and improved" life, she begins to develop a strange attachment to Junpei, her first savior, but is the same said for Junpei? JUNPEIXOC.
1. Rescue

**Disclaimer; I do not own any of the Persona series.**

_Author's Note: Hey guys, Euphie here with a little information on the story. Riisa will be replacing Minato, sadly, and the story will be beginning just after everyone is recruited. I guess you could say it doesn't exactly follow the storyline, though there will be hints of it. So, here we are, second years, middle of summer break, and someone new is discovered._

**Details**

**Chapter 1, "Rescue."**

Riisa stayed in the little ball that she'd managed to curl herself into, the corner of the alley acting as her safe haven of some sort. Tears poured down her cheeks as she tried to quiet her constant gasps for air with both her hands firmly pressed up against her mouth. She was scared that the slightest noise would bring attention toward her. And from the looks of it, that was the last thing that she wanted. The thought caused her body to tremble even more than it already was; she shut her eyes tightly in a desperate attempt to stop the tears. Her throat was starting to get sore.

She never would have thought that something like this could happen to her, to anyone, for that matter. It seemed… hellish. Maybe she had died…? No, that couldn't be right, not at all.

The last thing she could remember was getting off the subway. She needed somewhere to be… but in her panic, she must've forgotten. She remembered walking, through the streets, past all of the people… and then next thing she knew, there were no people. There were no more streets. There was just blood. Large coffins staring back down at her where the people should've been. And those… strange, strange creatures following her… it was complete manic! She must have been dreaming. _That's the only thing that makes sense…,_ Riisa thought to herself, burying her head in her knees, followed by a quiet sob. What was she going to go? What was going to happen?

"The hell…?" Riisa could hear faintly. At first, she thought that it was her. But that didn't make any sense at all. She abruptly quieted herself and her head shot up. Her eyes, though teary, frantically started to search the alleyway for the source of the voice.

"W-who's there…?" She hesitantly called out, her voice shaking in the chilled air. A million thoughts rushed through her head. What if it was another person? Stuck in her just like her? But… what if it was one of those _things_? She tensed up.

"Where are you?" The voice called back. It was a boy, young sounding. This perked Riisa's hopes. "H-here! In the alleyway!" She called back with the strength she had left, which was little. She went completely silent after that. She didn't even breathe. She just waited and waited… for something to happen.

Then, she heard it. The faint sound of running footsteps coming in her direction. Her heart suddenly filled with joy, and she got that strange feeling in her stomach. The feeling that felt so good, it made her want to throw up. A shadow in the shape of a human slowly started to come closer and closer to the entrance of the alleyway until it slowed to a walking pace upon entering. Riisa wiped the tears away from her eyes onto the sleeve of her shirt, then blinked a few times. She raised her head up to the figure, and when a faint light reflected against his face, she noticed his baseball cap. She had no idea why, but, that made her smile. Maybe because she was just too happy someone was with her. He offered a bright smile back to her, his eyes growing sincere, as he grew a little closer to her.

"Come on," He offered quietly when Riisa locked eyes with him, "Let's get you out of here. I bet you're scared out of your mind."

Riisa weakly nodded her head, her smile remaining. She took in a breath of air (probably from the time she had forgotten to,) and made an attempt to push herself up from the ground. Though, her legs wobbled; she was tired, and she had no idea why. She tried to hide this by using the wall to help steady herself, then she looked back at her savior with yet another kind smile.

"Someone looks grateful." The boy said as he smiled back, then he slowly turned, making a motion with his hand for her to follow. "I know you're freaked, but let me explain everything while I get you somewhere safe…"

Riisa nodded, her eyes growing distant as she swallowed hard and went to take her first step. She let out a sigh and slowly shut her eyes, before completely collapsing.

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She stirred softly as soon as she stared to come to, groaning and turning on her side. She laid still for a few moments, since she was too tired to do anything else. But as soon as she'd realized that she'd awakened, she fluttered her eyes open. "… mmm, eh?" She murmured through her lips. A bright, blinding white light was the first thing she saw, which caused her to shut her eyes in disgust. "Ow," She quietly whispered again, her eyes growing tighter. She heard a soft chuckle, which caused her face to soften, and her eyes to part once again.

The light started out soft again, but slowly dimmed, and formed to what seemed to be light flowing from blinds. The room was white with multicolored flowers on the wall. It looked something like a hospital room, or at least, something close to it. She shifted her eyes around the room, only to find someone sitting in the chair by her. At first, he seemed like a stranger, but then her memory started to flow back to her the second she glanced at his baseball cap. "What…" She began, but as soon as it started to come out, he interrupted her.

"Don't talk. Save your energy, you'll need it." The boy said, smiling before adding, "And don't worry, I'll explain _everything._"

Riisa watched him with perplexed eyes, though, after reviewing his tone, and thinking about how crazy that experience had been… she decided to trust him. Well, he obviously knew what was going on, and if she couldn't make sense of it, then she at least wanted to hear from an expert. She nodded her head softly to signify she wanted to hear.

The boy's smile brightened. "Great. Name's Junpei, Junpei Iori. And I'm guessing you'd be Riisa?"

She nodded her head again, uttering a small, "H-how…?"

"You were going to go to Gekkoukan, right? Well, I had my researcher look it up, and of course, the school said that you hadn't come in. So we told them you had a little… accident." Junpei added another jubilant smile. He didn't want to freak her out; it did sound a little stalker-ish, and he needed to convince her well enough so she could fall into their fingers.

"… oh, right…" She whispered back, starting to regain her strength. She groaned, pushing herself up into a sitting position, brushing her chocolate hair out of her face. After a moment of staring at each other, she finally spoke once again, "So… what was that…?"

"… It's really hard to explain. To be honest, I'm not the best person you should be asking." Junpei let out nervous laughter, "But, to sum it up, that place that you were in, it's called the Dark Hour. Normal people don't experience it… well, _normal _people."

"Y-you mean, I'm not normal?" Riisa's voice started to get panicked. "Is that why I'm in the hospital?"

Junpei chuckled as he shook his head. "No, no. I'd like to call it, _special._ Yeah, that's right, we're special. And since we're special, we can go into the Dark Hour. Nothing to worry about, except for the shadows."

"… the shadows…" Riisa could remember now. That's the reason she was running, because one of those… things were following her. "Those icky black things, right? Those are 'shadows?'"

"That's right. They're the reasons we go into the Dark Hour. We go in to kill them, because… well, uh, um… I forget, but, really, the thing is to beat the crap outta those guys."

"So, before you saved me, you were killing the shadows…?"

"Yup. And, no applause for that, it was no big." Junpei added a cheesy smile. Riisa tried to hold it in as best as she could, but, just staring caused her to burst out into laughter. Junpei's smile faded. "H-hey, that wasn't meant to be funny!" He whined, but when he saw her smile, he couldn't help but smile again. Hey, he had to admit it, she was cute, and he liked where this was going.

As soon as her laughter faded, she took in a breath of air and faced Junpei again, this time with a gracious smile. "Okay, so, Dark Hour, shadows, what does this have to do with me?"

Junpei frowned. "… Well, uh… that's kind of the thing. We don't exactly know…" He trailed off, seeming to hesitate for a brief moment before continuing, "… so, I can take you to a place where we will find out."

"… what do you mean?"

"There's more people like us," Junpei's tone started to get serious, and he leaned in closer to her. Riisa's eyes met his, her face falling curious. He went on, "We all live in the same dorm. If you want to find out more about what you can do… come with me."

Riisa was silent. Astonishingly… everything he'd said so far was making perfect sense. Maybe it was because everything before that hadn't… or maybe she was just going crazy. But, Junpei didn't seem to mean any harm. He saved her; he obviously didn't want to mean any harm to her. She wanted to know more about this place… this crazy place called the Dark Hour. Plus, it wasn't like she had a place to stay here anyway. She just moved.

"… okay. I trust you."

**NOTE; **_Okay, as I said before, go easy guys. In addition for it being my first Persona fanfic, it is also the return of my long hatius from writing._

_I'll give you a million cookies if you review. (:_

_Also, feedback on Junpei guys, I don't think I can pull him off well enough. I need as much as I can get. :0_

_**The next chapter**__?: We'll be skipping forward a week, so don't act all "OMFGWTFIZGOOINONGAIS."_


	2. The Start of the Beginning

**Disclaimer; I do not own any of the Persona series games, thank you. (:**

_Thanks __Shadow of Judgment__ for reviewing and much love to you! _

**Details**

**Chapter 2, "The Start Of The Beginning"**

The past few days had been hectic for Riisa, as she had expected them to be, learning about the Dark Hour and what not of it. Moving in with the rest of the team was probably one of the harder parts of her 'new life,' and though they welcomed her, she was scared that at one point she might let them down. She'd only been to the Dark Hour twice, her first experience and another when they took her to explain the use of her persona, and each times she'd choked up and fainted. She was far more sensitive than the rest, according to Mitsuru, but that would soon be cured by more trips to the Dark Hour. She wasn't sure if she could fight like the others though. They were so… well trained. She couldn't compete with them. Not with their powerful personas…

"Nakamura," She could hear from the other side of her dorm door. She blinked, slowly pushing herself up from her bed, her feet lightly grazing over the warm carpet. She rubbed her eye softly, and then lazily glanced over to the door. "… yes?" She replied back to the voice.

"We'll be leaving for the school soon," Mitsuru ordered through the door, her voice quiet yet urgent, "Please get ready."

"Y-yes, Mitsuru-sempai." Riisa muttered back, followed by a quiet yawn. She listened to Mitsuru's footsteps travel across the hallway and shuffle downstairs. She stood up and stretched her arms up to the sky, uttering a tiny, almost inaudible squeak just before she let her arms hang by her side. She let out a sigh of contentment and scratched the back of her head before reaching out for the towel hung over her chair and slung it over her arm. As she continued to gather her things needed for a shower, she thought about how everything she'd planned on doing was suddenly blown out of proportion. She imagined moving in, touring the city, making new friends, a completely _normal_ life. But this was crazy. Oh, well, it was her life now, and she couldn't change a thing about it. She pushed open the door and stepped quietly through the halls, since she guess that everyone was still getting ready as she was. As she clutched her towel and clothes tightly to her chest, and thought about all the training she would have to be doing for the dark hour. There was just so much stress that she just didn't want now, especially on the first day of school.

"I just don't want to let anyone down…" She mumbled very quietly to herself, and pleaded with all her heart that she wouldn't. Little did she know, she was the key to getting rid of the Dark Hour.

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"I'm ready," Riisa called out as she hurried down the stairs, throwing her arm into the straps of her backpack and brushing the hair out of her face with the back of her free hand. Once she reached the bottom of the stairs, she expected to see the entire group waiting for her, but held a shocked look on her face when she saw only Junpei, leaning up against the wall near the door.

"W-where did everyone else go?" Riisa muttered to him as she neared his way, a slight panicked tone in her voice and uneasiness in her step.

"They just left a while ago." He replied with a reassuring smile that seemed to calm Riisa… for the moment.

"Are we going to be late? Oh, my gosh, we have to hurry!" She frantically answered back to him, her hand flying out for the door and swinging it open. She prepared herself to make a mad dash toward the school, until she heard Junpei's familiar chuckle.

"You're so cute when you're freaking out," He replied, casually stepping out of the door before adding, "We're not late. They always leave a little early. I just decided to stay and wait for you, 'cause, well… I donno." He shrugged sheepishly, then looked back at her, expecting her to agree with him.

"… Oh… um…" Riisa smile back to him, a faint blush coming to her cheeks, "okay then. Thanks."

"No problem." Junpei's smile widened, then he turned and continued forward. Riisa followed him, by his side, her smile just as wide as his was. He was nice, _really _nice, and he made her laugh. She was glad that she had such a good friend like him. After all, she seemed to get along with him much better than the others. But, then again, it was only the first couple of weeks, and she knew it would take time to get to know the others.

"So, how do you like the Dark Hour?" Junpei questioned Riisa curiously, stretching up both of his arms to the air.

"It's… weird." She responded, then quickly added, "I mean, the whole concept…"

"… You mean, the evokers?" Junpei asked, his cheery expression faltering. He could remember his first time. "… Don't worry. You'll get used to it, trust me."

Riisa was about to say something back, but instead, she kept her lips tightly shut, and just looked over to Junpei with a hint of thankfulness in her eyes. She was surely thankful. After a moment of staring, she nodded her head, and looked back at the road in front of her, uttering a small, "Yeah, I will."

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The day was long, and it made it longer to know there was another one following it. Throwing her bag carelessly to the corner of her room, Riisa pressed her back up against her door and let out a long, sigh. She shut her eyes, and kept them closed for a while, trying to relax herself. Sure, school was okay, but her whole mind was extremely stressed out when she thought about how she was going to balance the Dark Hour and school. She opened her eyes again, looking around the room, and then stepped in deeper into her abode, her arm reaching out for the mp3 player on her desk when her eyes jumped across something… unusual. A package.

She blinked inquisitively, and stared at it for a moment before lifting it up into her hands. She flipped it over on its opposite side, and discovered there was a note taped to the back. It read:

"_I figured you could use these if you're still not ready to use your persona. I figured these would fit you well, and if not, we can make a change._

_Good luck,_

_Mitsuru."_

Riisa started to tear away at the wrapping paper, and after a few rips, she could already tell what it was. A weapon. She stopped opening it, and frowned. She let the package fall back onto the desk, the two twin daggers gleaming in the faint light provided by the window. "…" She sighed, and after staring at the weapons for a minute or so, she finally took them both into her hands, gawking at them awkwardly. She couldn't believe she was actually going to use them. She was actually apart of this… it all happened so fast.

Then it hit her. She _just_ remembered how tired she was in the mists of it. She slowly set the two daggers next to the opened package, then, without bothering to change, she planted herself on the bed and shut her eyes with a groan. She needed all the rest she could get. Somehow she knew that.

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Riisa was recklessly awakened by loud pounding on the door and the frightful cries from Yukari on the other side, "Riisa! Wake up!"

She shot up like a bullet, her head flipping back to the door. "Yukari?!" She yelled back, loud, yet a slight whimper in her tone. She pushed herself out of the bed, the adrenaline starting to flow into her veins as she ran across the room and threw open the door. Just as she did so, a crash emitted through the building, causing it to shake, followed by yells coming from downstairs. "What's going on?!" Riisa questioned Yukari with a look of horror on her face.

"There's no time to explain! We've just got to get out of here!" She yelled, then turned her head back down the hall, apparently looking at someone. "Just tell them to hold them off a little longer, Ken, we're going to find away out!" Yukari then turned back to Riisa, her voice rushing even more, "Hurry, now." With that, she turned, and sprinted off down the hall. Riisa hesitated for a brief moment, but then her legs finally decided to cooperate, she ran after Yukari, until the two came to a halt at the end of the hall.

"Where should we…" Yukari murmured to herself, but was interrupted by another crash and a shake, this time knocking the two girls off their feet. Riisa used the wall to stop her fall, while Yukari came crashing to the ground on her back. Yukari whimpered in agony as she hit the ground; Riisa quickly maneuvered her way over to Yukari, grabbing hold of her arm to try and help her up, but alas, there was another shake, sending Riisa back. Before she hit the ground, she grabbed onto the railing of the stairs just in time. She hung on for a while, weak eyes hovering over Yukari, who stared back at her with helpless ones. Then, suddenly, she screamed, "Go! Get to the roof! You'll be safe there!"

"B-but you…"

"I'll catch up, just go now!"

Riisa didn't waste anytime. She quickly lifted herself up with the help of the railing and dashed up the stairs, her heart beating widely in her chest as she got higher and higher up the stairs. A million thoughts ran through her head, none of which really mattered at the moment. All she needed to focus on was getting the hell out of there. Once she spotted the door to the roof, she slowed, only slightly, and threw the door open in one swift motion. She came skidding to a stop when she was outside. The air was still, which only made her heart beat faster than it already was. Everything around her was quiet, eerily quiet; she was silently waiting for something to pop up behind her. She raised her eyes up to the sky, only to see the green glowing clouds and full moon. She stared, her expression only becoming even more distressed. She couldn't believe this was happening… she didn't even know _what_ was happening.

Another crash, but no shake. She jumped a little, looking to the open door behind herself, starting to grow a little worried about the others. But then she heard something… strange. It sounded like something crawling _verrry _slowly. Her eyes went wide, and though she knew she had to, she was afraid to look back. She didn't want to know what was on the other side, but, her mind was reacting against her body, and her head started to slowly turn back forward. She let out a gasp at the mere sight of the creature; black, with multiple twitching arms and claws. Every time it moved it left a sludgy black substance behind it. Placed randomly near the middle was a mask, which looked that of a face. Since it was so large, it had to grip onto the ground with its claws to drag itself onto the building, its sludgy essence splurging all around the floor. Riisa's mouth dropped open is disgust and shock as she watched the creature inch near her, her body refusing to move as she shook violently. She wanted to run, run far away, but her body froze. She couldn't move. The beast seemed to notice this, and took the advantage, slowly reaching a claw in the air; it slowly began to glow, as if it was casting some sort of spell.

"Riisa!" She heard from behind herself. She knew that voice. Junpei. Before she even had a chance to turn around, he was already racing toward her and shoving her out of the way. She fell to the floor, sliding as she hit the ground. She moaned, lifting up her head, parting open her eyes. The first thing that she saw was Junpei… laying on the ground, unmoving. Her heart stopped. "J-Junpei…" She mouthed out, her throat starting to get tight and her eyes beginning to water at the corners. Her eyes dashed from the creature and to the wounded Junpei. She bit her lower lip, to try and keep herself from absolutely loosing it, when she spotted Junpei's evoker lying not to far away from her. It didn't take her long to figure out what to do. She raised herself up off the floor with little difficulty, rushed over to the evoker, grabbed it, and pushed it against the side of her head.

"… Persona." She muttered with integrity flashing in her teary eyes.

**NOTE;** _Wow, this one turned out long! Hopefully this will hold you guys over for a while, since, I have a trip to be making next weekend, so I _might_ not be able to update. But that is a huge might, so, oh well._

_More feedback on Junpei will be loved._

_But reviews would be loved even more._

_**The next chapter?**__: Might drag on a while, since, the story will be introduced. Bear with me here, guys. ;)_


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